Other People's Fathers by Romana Petri

Her father, ROMANA PETRI wrote, “was different from all other men, because he knew great joy, the sudden overturning of grief, unreasoning optimism.” But he was not like the fathers of other people. And it was this sad revelation that led her to write this book, part stories, part reminiscence. There are vignettes of cruelty, of sadness, of isolation; but there is also a spirit of optimism that allows some of her friends — Avelina, Giovanni, Francesca, Sandro and others — to lead “normal” lives, despite their emotional scars.

Readers of Petri’s An Umbrian War will recall her unusual, haunting, lyrical style, which also pervades this work. Originally published as I Padri Degli Altri in 1999, Other People’s Fathers has been translated by Avril Bardoni.

ROMANA PETRI was born in 1955 in Rome. She graduated in Languages and Literature. Rizzoli published her first collection of short stories, The Blue Prawn, in 1990, whose title story was recently produced on Canadian radio. A writer for the newspaper L’Unita, her three published novels are highly regarded in Italy, Germany, Portugal and France. An Umbrian War, published as Alle Case Venie, was first published in 1997, and has won several literary awards, including the 1998 Rapallo-Carige Prize, the Palmi Prize and was a finalist for the Strega prize.